Movie/TV clichés

[nmrfox]

4am in The Apprentice house. The phone rings. A voice speaks "You need to report to somewhere or other in London. The cars will pick you up in 20 minutes". End of call. Excited contestant runs upstairs to impart the news to all of their sleeping housemates. Shots of people getting dressed, doing their hair, putting on make-up etc (plus inevitably one housemate looking bleary eyed from their bed as if they've spent most of the evening drinking Buckfast).

Next we see all of the smartly dressed hopefuls striding out purposefully toward the waiting cars. And the sun is shining and the weather is bright and clear. At 4.20am how is this possible?

[Patrick Thistle]

A device that's used to introduce characters at the start of the movie - they are on their way somewhere and they stop to order a coffee (or the coffee place has their order ready). If the character is suave and self assured they know what they want and either place a complicated order or the staff already have it ready and waiting and hand it over listing off the complicated instructions they've memorised. If the character is a klutz or a flake, ordering coffee is a challenge and then they spill it on themselves.

A variant is someone getting coffee for their boss. The boss's order is going to be horribly complicated and will probably go wrong.

[Sits]

Damn right.

[San Bernardhinault]

Shaft!

[tee rex]

A character will be seen for the first time walking purposefully along a street, perhaps from home to work, or to the shops. We know this is a good person because as s/he walks there are cheery greetings from everyone they pass, with name ("Morning Abby!", "Looking good, Abby!"). The greeters are sweeping, or shifting things, or setting up for the day. Our hero(ine) does not stop to have a conversation, or to inquire politely about the health of the people who have greeted them so warmly, they might wave or greet but are on the move and the walking must continue, at pace.

Often shown during the opening credits, hence lack of dialogue.

[Felicity, I guess so]

And once parked they never, ever lock the fucking thing

[San Bernardhinault]

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but it's been driving me crazy a lot recently.

I also appreciate that it's not a "cliche" so much as an incredibly lazy plot device, used in every style of films from spy thrillers to romantic comedies to political dramas to heist movies:

Parking. Someone is driving in New York, or London, or Prague, or anywhere. They scoot up outside the building they need to go in, even a major bank in a skyscraper or government building, and park right in front - there is an empty spot just waiting for them. They don't pay, they don't look at the signs to see if they're allowed to park, but even though parking is free the absolutely prime spots are always available. They can rock up in front of a restaurant in LA and there are spots in front. Nobody ever tickets or tows them. They come out and jump back in the car and go on their way. This even happens in cities our protagonists have never been in before, where we'd be freaking out about all kinds of traffic rules, like if we happened to be driving in Moscow or Shanghai. Not only that, if this is a thriller-y spy-y kind of film, if our protagonist is chasing or following someone you know their car will be parked exactly where the follow-ee is headed in his own vehicle - we won't have to follow a one way system around 4 blocks of stopped traffic just to get to the starting point by which time our followee is long since vanished.

[ursus arctos]

I imagine that a new establishment would offer audio via radio or smartphones, but I am old enough to have attended drive-ins where one parked nest to a pole that had a speaker on a relatively short cord.

[San Bernardhinault]

The San Diego drive-in still uses short range FM transmitters.

[diggedy derek]

To a limited extent, yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-...ound_the_world

The question I would have with drive-ins is how the sound would be transmitted to the cars, if not by analogue radio. Not sure I could face pairing my car with a screen via Bluetooth

My cliche for today is suddenly leaving the house without checking three times that you have keys, wallet and phone.

[Sits]

There is an assassination attempt on a high profile but controversial tycoon/academic. Rather than appreciating that the police are attempting to keep them alive, the tycoon/academic is irritable and impatient with their questioning and desperate to get on with their tycooning/academia//self-promotion.

[San Bernardhinault]

It looks like we do still have one drive-in here in San Diego even after the Santee one shut. It's way in the south, almost at the border. It's been in operation since 1958 so will qualify as continuously operational. Currently $10 for adults, $1 for under 10s.

There are also a bunch of places that set up ad hoc open air screenings during the summer, using portable inflatable screens. The inflatable nature of the screens means it's not "big screen", but is enough to watch some stuff. The most fun was the time we got to watch Top Gun on the deck of an aircraft carrier. But even San Diego doesn't really have reliably warm enough evenings to guarantee sitting outside without moving in the dark will not leave you shivering and wishing you'd brought a load of blankets with you. And it certainly isn't quiet enough. If you get annoyed by the rumblings of the superhero movie in the theatre next door, imagine how you feel when vital dialogue is swallowed by a plane landing or a police siren.

[treibeis]

There was one here, but it went bust about 20 years ago. I always wanted to go there, but I didn't have any friends with a car, and two hours in a stationary taxi would have been a bit too expensive.

I suppose i could have done the equivalent of thumbing a lift at the entrance, but I doubt whether there'd have been any takers.

[G-Man]

Did anywhere besides the US and Canada have drive-ins? They seem very culturally specific to time and place (the remaining one in this area has some kind of provincial heritage designation.)

We had them in South Africa. I know of three in Cape Town that existed until the mid-1990s, one of which I occasionally frequented (it's now a casino). Once the novelty wore off, I really couldn't see the point of them as a cinematic experience.

But in the past years, two new drive-ins were set up. One closed after a couple of years, and the other operates on weekends only. There are also outdoor screening venues, which are quite popular.

[ursus arctos]

To a limited extent, yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-...ound_the_world

[Amor de Cosmos]

Did anywhere besides the US and Canada have drive-ins? They seem very culturally specific to time and place (the remaining one in this area has some kind of provincial heritage designation.)

[ursus arctos]

The existing cinemas in what became suburban towns also lacked parking.

That became much less of an issue with the development of shopping malls, and later multiplexes.

[Hot Pepsi]

They had a revival during COVID.

I guess the original idea was that theaters/cinemas/movie houses were cramped and un-air conditioned. So being outside in one’s car was better, especially for amorous teenagers.

[San Bernardhinault]

The one 4 miles from here shut 2 months ago after 65 years. So there must be some originals that are still going.

I never went so my sadness at its demise should be viewed as very shallow.

[ursus arctos]

There are very few left, though there are periodic attempts to resurrect them as nostalgia magnets.

I'm not sure that there are any that have been in continuous operation.

[Patrick Thistle]

Good point about "movie theatres" - definitely hear that in film and TV dialogue.

The other thing the USA has (had?) are "drive ins".

[Sits]

'Fleapit'.

Ours was definitely one of these.

[treibeis]

Or ‘flicks’.

At least, when I was young.

'Fleapit'.

[Hot Pepsi]

What did you think of it?

It was ok.2.5 or 3 stars.

[ursus arctos]

I am considerably older than Plodder, and am likely referencing an earlier time.